Tobacco, Fertility Stories Win Pulitzers
Journalists who exposed wrongdoing - cigarette makers who secretly heightened nicotine potency, esteemed fertility doctors who stole eggs from the womb, soldiers who committed Europe’s worst massacre since the Holocaust - won 1996 Pulitzer Prizes on Tuesday.
The New York Times won three prizes and Newsday two. The Associated Press won for a freelancer’s photo of a big fireman and a little girl in the ruins of the bombed-out Oklahoma City federal building.
The News & Observer of Raleigh, N.C., won the gold medal for public service for stories on the environmental and health risks of waste disposal in hog farming.
Jonathan Larson won the drama prize, less than three months after he died at age 35 after the final dress rehearsal for his rock opera “Rent.”
The staff of The Orange County (Calif.) Register won the investigative reporting award for uncovering fraud at a fertility clinic.
Reporters were able to substantiate rumors that doctors at the University of California-Irvine were stealing eggs from patients, fertilizing them, then implanting the embryos into other unwitting patients - resulting in live births.
The award for explanatory journalism went to Laurie Garrett of Newsday for reporting from Zaire on the Ebola virus outbreak. At the height of the outbreak, she spent nine days in the epicenter. Even though it wasn’t clear how transmissible the virus was, Garrett went into homes ravaged by the virus to get her story.
Newsday’s Bob Keeler won the beat reporting prize for his detailed portrait of a year in the life of a Roman Catholic parish on Long Island.
The national reporting prize went to Alix M. Freedman of The Wall Street Journal for coverage of the tobacco industry, including a report that showed how ammonia additives heightened nicotine potency.
David Rohde of The Christian Science Monitor won the international reporting award for covering the massacre of thousands of Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica.
With the help of a translator, he talked authorities into allowing him to travel without supervision behind Bosnian Serb lines. Using a blurry, faxed copy of a satellite photo, he found mass graves and collected the first on-site evidence of mass executions by the Bosnian Serb forces.
A special award was given to Herb Caen, the San Francisco Chronicle columnist, for his “extraordinary and continuing contribution as a voice and a conscience of his city.”
“I thought it was April Fools’ Day when somebody called to tell me,” he said. “It’s a thrill. I feel a little dizzy.”
The spot news photography prize was awarded to Charles Porter IV, a bank employee, for photographs taken after the Oklahoma City bombing that showed the body of 1-year-old Baylee Almon being cradled by fireman Chris Fields.
xxxx Pulitzer winners Winners of the 1996 Pulitzer Prizes: JOURNALISM Public service - The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C. Spot news reporting - Robert D. McFadden of The New York Times. Investigative reporting - The Orange County (Calif.) Register staff. Explanatory journalism - Laurie Garrett of Newsday. Beat reporting - Bob Keeler of Newsday. National reporting - Alix M. Freedman of The Wall Street Journal. International reporting - David Rohde of The Christian Science Monitor. Feature writing - Rick Bragg of The New York Times. Commentary - E.R. Shipp of the New York Daily News. Criticism - Robert Campbell of The Boston Globe. Editorial writing - Robert B. Semple Jr. of The New York Times. Editorial cartooning - Jim Morin of The Miami Herald. Spot news photography - Charles Porter IV, free-lance, distributed by The Associated Press. Feature photography - Stephanie Welsh, free-lance, distributed by Newhouse News. Special award - Herb Caen of the San Francisco Chronicle. ARTS Fiction - “Independence Day” by Richard Ford. Drama - “Rent” by Jonathan Larson. History - “William Cooper’s Town: Power and Persuasion on the Frontier of the Early American Republic” by Alan Taylor. Biography - “God: A Biography” by Jack Miles. Poetry - “The Dream of the Unified Field” by Jorie Graham. General nonfiction - “The Haunted Land: Facing Europe’s Ghosts After Communism” by Tina Rosenberg. Music - “Lilacs” by George Walker.